Abadi Slams US Congress Bill to Split Iraq

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi denounced a controversial US Congress bill aimed at dividing the Arab country into three states.

In a phone conversation with US Vice President Joe Biden, Abadi expressed concern over the bill, a statement by the premier’s office said.

The prime minister told Biden that he is opposed to such a plan which is aimed at weakening the unity of Iraq, it added.

The White House also said in a statement that Abadi and Biden also spoke “about recent security developments inside Iraq.”

The draft of the US annual defense bill, which was released on April 27 by the House Armed Services Committee, urges the US government to recognize separate Kurdish and Sunni states and provide them with at least 25 percent of the USD-715-million aid money planned to be given to the Iraqi government to help it fight the ISIL terrorist group.

The draft bill also says the figure could even amount to 60 percent of the money, about USD 429 million, Press TV reported.

The bill mandates that “the Kurdish Peshmerga, the Sunni tribal security forces with a national security mission, and the Iraqi Sunni National Guard be deemed a country,” adding that doing so “would allow these security forces to directly receive assistance from the United States.”

In a Saturday meeting with US Ambassador to Baghdad Stuart Jones, Iraq’s Interior Minister Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban warned that the bill “is a serious threat to the campaign against the ISIL Takfiri group” operating in Iraq and Syria, al-Forat news website reported.